(Dave Bedard photo)

Saskatchewan budget aims to spur ag investment

Potash, crude oil resource revenues help cut deficit

Sweetening existing tax credits on big-ticket investments, and setting up a new Crown corporation to support Indigenous investors, are among the items expected to help encourage new value-added ag projects in Saskatchewan’s latest budget. Provincial Finance Minister Donna Harpauer on Wednesday released her 2022-23 budget with $17.6 billion in expenditures on $17.2 billion in revenues, […] Read more

(CPR.ca)

CP service to resume as dispute goes to arbitration

Engineers, conductors to return to work Tuesday noon

Engineers, conductors and train and yard service staff at Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) will return to work by noon local time Tuesday as their labour dispute goes to arbitration. Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, attending labour talks between CP and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) in Calgary, announced Tuesday morning that the parties “have […] Read more


CCA president Bob Lowe speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on March 21, 2022, calling for federal back-to-work legislation to end a work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Railway. (CPAC video screengrab via YouTube)

Ag industry groups seek legislated end to CP stoppage

Feed, fertilizer traffic already way behind, groups say

Warning they don’t have time to wait on negotiation, representatives for cattle feeders, fertilizer producers and grain growers took to Parliament Hill on Monday to press for the federal government to instead legislate Canadian Pacific Railway’s engineers and conductors back to work. Traffic halted on CP lines just after midnight ET Sunday morning as the […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

CP engineers, conductors locked out; talks continue

'Parties are working through the night': O'Regan

A lockout has begun at Canadian Pacific Railway affecting its 3,000-odd unionized engineers, conductors and train and yard service staff, effectively shutting down CP service. “The work stoppage has begun, but CP and (the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference) are still at the table with federal mediators,” federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said in a statement […] Read more


A group of wild boars running in Europe, where the pigs have caused challenges with disease spread. (iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan to license, limit wild boar farming

Moratorium placed on any new farms

Saskatchewan is tightening its rules on wild boar farming, including a moratorium on any new farms, in a renewed bid to keep the province’s feral pig population in check. The provincial ag ministry announced the moratorium Wednesday and said it’s “developing regulations for licensing existing commercial wild boar farms.” Regulations for wild boar and feral […] Read more

(Nutrien video screengrab via YouTube)

Nutrien to produce ‘most potash ever’ in 2022

Company to ramp up production in response to Ukraine conflict

The world’s biggest potash-producing company is set to produce more potash in 2022 due to “uncertainty of potash supply” coming out of Eastern Europe. Saskatoon-based Nutrien, which has an estimated 20 million tonnes of potash-mining capacity across six mines in Saskatchewan, said Wednesday it plans to boost its output for 2022 to 15 million tonnes, […] Read more


(File photo by Dave Bedard)

CP to lock out engineers, conductors starting Sunday

'Cannot prolong the uncertainty,' CEO says

Canadian Pacific Railway has served its unionized engineers, conductors and train and yard service staff with notice of a lockout to start just after midnight ET on Sunday, unless the company and union agree on a new labour deal by then. Calgary-based CP and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents about 3,000 CP […] Read more

Charles Baron and partners brought FBN to Canada in 2017, buying Saskatchewan-based Yorkton Distributors. (FBN video screengrab via YouTube)

Antitrust probe in ag inputs dropped

Communications over FBN still 'concerning,' Competition Bureau says

Allegations suggesting ag chem sector players tried to derail an online farm-supply firm’s business in Western Canada haven’t turned up enough evidence for federal regulators to probe the matter further. Canada’s Competition Bureau announced Tuesday it’s now closed an investigation it launched in 2019 over allegations brought forward by the Canadian arm of Farmers Business […] Read more


(Lightguard/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan pushes crop insurance deadline to mid-April

'Logistical challenges' led to extension

Saskatchewan farmers will get an extra couple of weeks to apply for, cancel, reinstate or change their crop insurance contracts for 2022, due to holdups in the delivery of their application packages. That deadline, originally March 31, has now been extended to April 14, provincial Ag Minister David Marit and his federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Maple Leaf to further consolidate Ontario poultry packing

Schomberg, Ont. plant to close by end of 2023

Maple Leaf Foods’ ongoing plan to consolidate its fresh poultry processing at London, Ont. now also includes the work from two more existing plants it owns north of Toronto. Maple Leaf said Wednesday that in “pursuing further optimization opportunities,” it will shift poultry volumes now processed at Bradford and nearby Schomberg to the new London […] Read more